The Clever Hack That Can Help Tell If Your Old Seeds Are Viable Or Not

Every year, often when the snow is still on the ground, gardeners take the first steps of spring gardening. Retrieving their carefully collected stash of seeds from storage, they begin the sorting and planning process for spring planting. And every year, without fail, they find packets that, for whatever reason, they never got around to planting — some from the previous season and some from who knows when. But rather than throw them away (which seems wasteful) or plant an entire bed that might not germinate, it's best to test them for viability to see if they can still be planted. Thankfully, there is a quick and simple way to test your seeds for duds, and all you'll need is your cell phone. Using the flashlight of your cell phone to shine through the seed can show if the internal components of the seed are still viable.

Garden seeds can expire, so to speak, especially when they are stored in less-than-ideal conditions. Most seeds, if not stored in a cool, dry location, lose their optimum germination rates after about a year. Many people don't realize that garden seeds are most likely already a year old by the time you purchase them. So, time is not on your side. The faster you get your seeds in the ground, the better. Instead of taking days to do traditional germination tests, you can hold your seeds up to your phone's LED flashlight and find out in a few seconds if your seed is still good to plant. If the light easily shines through, the internal components of the seed have dried out, and the embryo of the seed is most likely dead.

When doing a test for seed viability using the LED light on your cell phone, you are looking for one thing specifically — translucence. You see, when a seed is viable, its embryo and endosperm (the part that stores its nutrients) are intact. When a light shines through the seed it will appear darker on the inside. When a seed is no longer good, these internal parts dry up and light will pass through easily. Your phone's LED light is the perfect size to place seeds over and is strong enough to shine through the seed. This trick works best on seeds with thinner casings that are medium in size, like tomato, peppers, and watermelon. It won't work for seeds with thick shells, dark coats, or small sizes. For those, try the simple paper towel trick to test seed viability. 

To perform the light test, go in a dark area, place your phone face down on a flat surface, make sure your phone's flashlight is on high, and place your seed over the light. Analyze the seed from above. If you can see through the seed and there is no shadowy area in the seed, it has most likely dried out and will not germinate. But if you see a shadowy section in the seed, you can plant it as normal, and it should grow. To give your seeds the best chance of producing a seedling, try a few tricks for increasing seed germination rates. Any seeds that don't pass the test you can simply discard.